Design Display Project Lead

Job Title: Display Project Lead 

Reports To: Associate Account Director 

FLSA Status: Full Time - Salaried, Exempt 

Location: Cincinnati, OH

Who is pep: 

When smart business, a drive for success, and a family atmosphere combine, you get pep! At pep, we help deliver the strategy for brands worldwide– seamlessly managing all the details so that the brand can stay focused on their big picture.  Through our expertise in marketing operations, we help execute our clients’ marketing campaigns more effectively than anyone else in the world.  We know that sourcing is essential to brand success as well, so we’ve become experts in leveraging scale and spend to save our clients’ time and money.  We’re not all talk- our results back us up too!  To date, we’ve managed campaigns for over 750 brands, delivering an average of 21% savings on over $5 billion in marketing spend.  Our success also pays it forward to our employees by allowing us to offer paid parental leave, work-life flexibility and remote working opportunities to name a few.  Want to be a part of something original? Check out our growing team and join us!  

Summary of Position:   

The Display Project Lead is a role focusing on the project management of temporary and semi-permanent point-of-purchase (POP) displays  including coordination of display design, development, production, assembly, and ship to trade.  As a Display Project Lead, you will be responsible for campaign management from conception to final delivery of displays for your assigned business unit.  You will execute projects flawlessly while delivering against procurement strategies and goals. The Display Project Lead is responsible for maintaining a project management workload while developing their colleagues and assisting leadership with key initiatives including developing and implementing best in class processes, delivering cost savings, and driving time and resource efficiencies. Entrepreneurial leadership, attention to detail, relationship management, communication, problem solving, and analytical skills are a must to drive value for our clients.  Ideal candidates will be goal-oriented, self-motivated, resilient, highly conscientious, and have the ability to thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic environment. The ability to build strong relationships  while collaborating remotely will be key to successfully fulfilling this role. 

Key Responsibilities and Attributes: 

• Manage POP display campaigns from conception to completion
• Collaborate with client to assemble all necessary campaign specifications
• Create and manage campaign budget, timeline, and communication
• Ensure that the campaign meets all legal and policy guidelines/requirements
• Manage campaign scope changes as needed while ensuring an on-time and on-budget execution
• Issue bids to suppliers and award business according to defined purchasing policies and guidelines
• In conjunction with supplier partners, provide client with recommendations for cost and/or time efficiencies
• Create purchase orders and manage corresponding invoices
• Complete data entry to track and document all relevant project details in pep and client systems
• Meet or exceed client team metrics and lead by example
• Support the Associate Account Director of your assigned category(ies) with overarching team and client initiatives 
• Drive project management excellence and provide mentorship and leadership for Display Coordinators
• Mentor and coach employees outside your immediate team
• Other duties assigned as needed 

Client & Supplier Relationships: 

• Consult upstream with your client contacts so you are positioned to drive speed to market, cost efficiencies, and process improvements   
• Build client relationships by providing extensive value and expertise within the POP spend
• Build and grow collaborative relationships with supplier partners
• Conduct regular meetings with clients and suppliers to ensure flawless execution and delivery
• Quarterly travel to client’s US based headquarters  required, along with minimal travel to suppliers or pep headquarters

POP Knowledge & Expertise: 

• Assist in the establishment, development, and improvement of processes and procedures
• Develop and apply expertise related to display design and production to deliver best in class POP activations for clients
• Utilize experience with retail environments, style guides, seasonal resets and in-store trends to deliver increased value to pep and pep’s clients
• Continually strive to become a POP expert for your category, keeping up to date with industry trends, and best practices
• Ability to read and interpret documents including but not limited to Dielines, Planograms, Technical Drawings, Bills of Material, Bills of Lading, and more
• Ability to analyze large amounts of data and reporting to provide thought leadership and insights around various topics including but not limited to: service-level agreements (SLAs), delivery, spend levels, forecasted units, workload, and budgets

Metrics: 

Maintain strong metrics in relation to: 

• Cost savings
• Time and resource efficiency
• Error rate
• On-time, on-budget and on-scope delivery
• SLA adherence 
• Client satisfaction rating
• Individual client allocation spend growth
• Individual project management metrics
• Stewardship and innovation recommendations 

Knowledge/Skills Preferred: 

• Bachelors in Business or Communication a 2.8+ GPA from four-year college or university; or Minimum 18 months of applicable business experience
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in project management, POP, print, or displays 
• Experience with the Consumer Packaged Goods industry
• Experience in the Beauty industry a plus

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.  The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  A successful candidate will have the following skills: 

• Extremely organized with the ability to communicates effectively across multiple parties
• Ability to identify and provide creative solutions to challenges
• Ability to collaborate with team members remotely to improve processes to provide value and efficiency
• Agile and able to deliver in an extremely fast-paced environment while managing a high workload
• Independent work style with a team player mindset and an enthusiastic and energetic approach
• Ability to effectively utilize staff including collaborating with subject matter experts and delegating as appropriate
• Strong skills and knowledge in the following applications: Microsoft Outlook, Word, Power Point, and Excel. Typing skills should be a minimum of 55 wpm

*pep provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, pep complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

pep expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of pep’s employees to perform their job duties may result in discipline up to and including discharge.